[1.3]
"i mean, i know i was so busy being angry, but even i could see the chemistry"
When Mickey flashed to the Wilson residence, instead of appearing right in Carrie's room, she instead appeared in front of the door. She thought it best to tread lightly given Carrie's angry mood from earlier. Micky stuck her hand through the door and knocked on it from the other side — it was a way to respect Carrie's privacy and also let her know just who was knocking.
After a few seconds and some shuffling on the other end, Carrie yanked her door open. She still looked at Mickey with a sour look on her face but did let her into the room. Carrie quickly marched back over to her bed and sat down with her arms crossed.
"I thought I told you to leave me alone," she said, turning to look at her computer screen instead of the ghosts.
"I know, but I wanted to see if you were okay. You seemed really upset after the spirit rally, and I wasn't sure why. I mean, your performance was so awesome. I thought you would've been in a great mood."
"Yeah, Dirty Candy did amazing, but then Julie and your little ghost band stole the show!" she snapped. "We worked really hard on that song, but everyone forgot it as soon as they saw you guys."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Mickey said, frowning. She walked over and sat on Carrie's bed. "I didn't mean for that to happen. We weren't even supposed to play with her. It was just supposed to be her on the piano so she could try to get back in the music program."
Carrie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, which she did. Mrs. Harrison handed her spot back despite the fact that Julie didn't deserve it."
Mickey studied Carrie, who was pouting and looking down at her bed, clearly annoyed. "Do you mind me asking why you don't like Julie so much?"
Carrie paused for a moment before sighing. "We used to be friends — best friends actually. We grew up together and were always at each other's houses. My dad and her mom have been close since he was a teenager. I mean, my dad was even the one to get Julie into rock music in the first place."
"Then why'd you guys stop being friends? I couldn't imagine fighting with any of the guys so bad that we would stop talking completely."
"Her mom died last year," Carrie said, biting her lip. "And that's - it's not what caused it though. After that, Julie just completely pushed me out. She kept isolating herself from me. And yeah, I know she was upset about her mom, but she didn't do that with Flynn, our other best friend. It was just me."
"Oh," Mickey mumbled. On one hand, she couldn't blame Julie. Everyone dealt with grief in their own way, but she couldn't imagine how lonely it must have been for Carrie to lose her two best friends at the same time.
"And not only that but after Julie's mom died, my dad went through a rough time too. She was his friend from before he got famous. He's getting a little better, but for a long time, he just wouldn't talk to me. I started Dirty Candy as a way to get my mind off of everyone in my life leaving. And I worked really hard for us to be as good as we are today. I also work really hard in the music program."
"Mrs. Harrison had every right to kick Julie out," Carrie continued. "She didn't sing or play a single note for a year. It's a very competitive program, and she was keeping another talented kid from getting in. But then she just showed up with your band and upstaged us. It was so annoying to watch, no matter how good you sounded. But I'm sure you don't get it considering you're friends with her."
"No, I do," Mickey said, nodding her head. "I mean, when I was alive, I went to the Los Angeles Ballet Academy. It was ridiculously competitive, and it was pretty much impossible to make friends. If any of the people in my program stopped dancing, they wouldn't have even been allowed in for the rest of the year. They immediately would've been kicked out and their spot would've been filled. If Moira Richardson had pulled a stunt like that and then did a big dance to be let back in, I would've resorted to the old "razor blades in the shoes" trick."
Carrie's eyes widened and she chuckled. "Well, razor blades might be a bit too much."
"Yeah, when I say competitive, I mean really competitive," Mickey said, sucking on her teeth. "But, um, I get why you're mad about us performing. And I'm sorry that we stole the spotlight off of Dirty Candy. I loved your song, by the way."
"Thanks," Carrie said, finally offering her a small smile. "Hey, I thought you weren't in their band?"
"I wasn't, but my brother was the rhythm guitarist. Luke — he's the one that was wearing that orange beanie — knew that Bobby taught me how to play and he convinced me to take my brother's spot," Mickey explained.
"Luke," she said, repeating his name. "He was cute. They all were, actually. Especially the bass player. That's Reggie right?" Carrie had a teasing smile on her face. "I mean, I know I was so busy being angry, but even I could see the chemistry."
"Okay," Mickey muttered, blushing. "But uh, yeah, Luke was on electric, Reggie on bass, and then the drummer's name is Alex. They may be cute, but I can assure you that they're all stupid dorks. I mean, but you saw Reggie do that stupid butt dance after we flashed off stage."
Carrie frowned and tilted her head. "Butt dance? I never saw the guys after the song stopped. Just you standing to the side of the stage."
Now it was Mickey's time to frown. "Wait, so does that mean you can only see me when we aren't singing?"
"I guess," Carrie muttered. "I definitely only saw you after you got off stage. That's super weird, right? Well, weirder than this situation already is."
"Like, super weird," Mickey mumbled. "Well, I'll just add that to my ever-growing list of questions."
"Maybe I'll start a list on my phone to keep track of them all," Carrie said, holding up the pink device.
"So that phone thing? It can just look up all kinds of information? They aren't just for calling people anymore."
"Yeah. We can look up anything in the world and have the answer in seconds," she replied. "What? Do you have some burning questions that you need to know the answers to?"
"I mean, I wouldn't call it a "burning question," but I'm curious about some things. It has been twenty-five years after all," Mickey said, shrugging.
"Ask away."
"Okay, so, like, I'm not sure if you've ever heard of it, but this movie came out a few months before I died. I had a huge crush on one of the actors in it, and I kinda just want to see if he's still hot," she said, biting her lip. Carrie giggled but nodded her head for her to continue. "Okay, he played the step-brother in this movie called Clueless—"
"I love that movie!" Carrie excitedly interrupted. Then she quickly typed on her phone screen. "And yes, Paul Rudd is still very handsome."
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"Mick! Hurry up!" Bobby shouted out the window. He also honked the horn on his car as if he hadn't already gotten her attention.
He could see Mickey standing on the sidewalk outside her dance academy and she was speaking with some other girl. Mickey's own car was in the shop, meaning Bobby was tasked with picking her up from practice. Because of that, she would be accompanying him to his band rehearsal.
Sunset Curve had only officially been a band for a couple of weeks. Luke was putting in a ton of time to try and write their first real song, but in the meantime, they were just playing covers of some of their favorite rock songs. At the moment, they were using one of the music rooms at the high school to rehearse, but they were searching for a better spot.
It would be Mickey's first time meeting all of Bobby's friends, but they were running late, so he honked again. Bobby could see her roll her eyes before saying goodbye to the girl. She rushed over and climbed into the passenger seat while tossing her bag in the back. Then she turned to her brother while tucking some of her then-brunette hair behind her ear, which had fallen from her bun.
"Chill out, Bobs, you always drive over the speed limit anyways," she said, playfully rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, but Luke thinks he's finally got a real song finished. We're all eager to try it out," Bobby explained. He pulled out onto the road and headed towards the high school. "Plus, I'm excited for you to meet them. I know you'll love the guys."
"Well, anyone that likes you is automatically good in my book," she said, smiling sweetly. "I'm sure I'll love them, just not as much as you. Thanks for picking me up by the way."
"No problem, my little Mickey Mouse," he said, grinning. "So, how was dance practice?"
"It was a lot of fun. And they announced the shows that we're going to be doing for the rest of the year. This summer, we're doing Giselle, and then the Nutcracker at Christmas time. They're looking at one of the older girls for the lead in Giselle, but I think I'd have a real shot at Clara in the Nutcracker. I'll just have to work extra hard for it."
"You're the best dancer in your group, Mick. I'm sure you'll get it," he assured her.
The siblings talked about the rest of their days and caught up while they drove to the school. They hadn't been late like Bobby was worried they would be. Once they arrived, Mickey followed her brother to the room they had reserved for rehearsal. Before they even made it inside, they could hear chaotic banging on drums to no particular beat.
There were two guys their age in the room. The one banging on the drums had blonde hair and had a black fanny pack strapped around his chest. He was grinning at the other boy, who was wearing a black shirt that he had cut the sleeves off of. He was shoving chips into his mouth as he watched the other boy. But when they noticed Bobby and Mickey, he stopped and held the cymbals to cease the noise.
"Was that part of the new song?" Bobby asked, grinning.
The blonde boy shook his head and smiled. "Nah. Just wanted to annoy Luke." Then he got up and walked around the drum set and waved at Mickey. "Hey! You must be Bobby's sister. I'm Alex."
"Luke," the other boy greeted, waving as well.
"I'm Mickey," she said, grinning. "Bobby's told me all about how awesome you guys are. It's nice to meet you."
"You too," Alex said. "I've never met a ballerina before."
"Uh, what do you call this, then?" Luke asked. He set his bag of chips down and jumped up. Then he stood on his toes and put his hands over his head. Luke then twirled around the room, mimicking a ballerina, which made the others laugh.
"I call that embarrassing," Bobby said, shaking his head.
Luke scoffed and put a hand to his chest, pretending to be hurt. "I'm great at ballet."
"I totally saw tons of potential," Mickey lied while grinning. "We can work on your form."
"Nice," Luke said, nodding.
"Where's Reg?" Bobby asked, pulling his guitar out of its case.
"He's on the way. Had to ask his parents permission to come," Alex said, twirling one of his drumsticks between his fingers. "I think he said something about them being kinda strict."
"Well, he better get here soon. I got these killer lyrics to show you. I'm thinking we call it Now or Never," Luke told them.
Mickey slid on top of a desk while Bobby started tuning his guitar. While they waited for the last member of the band, the guys asked Mickey a few more questions. There were also lots of jokes made about Bobby, who would simply roll his eyes, but he still smiled. He was glad that his friends were getting along with Mickey, knowing they were all the most important people to him.
Eventually, the door opened and the final bandmate entered the room. Mickey turned to see a boy her age. He had brown hair that looked like he had been running his hands through it and had several bracelets and necklaces on. He was wearing a blue flannel shirt and ripped, black jeans. His cheeks were flushed, as if he had run to get there on time. Mickey also noticed that his eyes looked a little red, almost like he had been crying, but for all she knew, he could've just been high.
"Sorry I'm late, dudes," he said, immediately putting his guitar case down and pulling out his bass. He hadn't even noticed Mickey, who was watching him with her head tilted.
"No problem. We were just getting to know Mickey," Alex told him. As he spoke, he pointed a drumstick in the girl's direction.
Reggie finally noticed her presence and looked up from his guitar. His lips parted as he caught sight of her smiling softly at him.
"Hi. I'm Mickey, Bobby's sister. You're Reggie, right?" she asked, resting her head on her right knee, which she had pulled into her chest.
"Uh, ye - yeah. I'm Reggie. It's n - nice to meet you, Mickey," he stuttered out, his cheeks heating up as he continued to stare at her. Bobby immediately narrowed his eyes at his friend, knowing that's the look that Reggie got on his face when he spoke to a pretty girl. But Mickey had a pretty similar one on hers as well.
"Nice to meet you too."
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Mickey stayed and spent a little more time with Carrie. She liked the younger girl's presence and wondered if they would've been friends had they been born at the same time. Before Mickey returned to the studio, Carrie asked that she still keep the fact that she could see her a secret. She didn't want to have any sort of conversation with Julie about being able to see one out of the four ghosts, and Mickey would respect that. Carrie also would keep up with the whole hologram lie that everyone believed.
When Mickey flashed back to the studio, Luke and Reggie were the only two in there. They were leaning over the piano and working on the lyrics to the new song. However, when Reggie noticed Mickey had finally returned, he rushed to her side to hug her.
"Where the heck have you been?" he asked, frowning. "I was worried about you. You didn't tell us where you were going."
"I was just... exploring," she said, hugging him back. "I'm sorry I worried you, Reggie."
"Just bring me with you next time," he mumbled, leaning his cheek against the top of her head.
"Can you guys stop being gross and come hear what we've got so far?" Luke asked, rolling his eyes. Mickey looked at him, and he seemed more stressed out than when she had left. Clearly, he was torn up about the whole Julie situation. So, to appease him, Reggie and Mickey walked hand in hand over to the piano so that Luke could go over the poem.
"Guess that means I'm buying lunch that day," Luke sang quietly while Mickey nodded to the beat. "I know all your secrets. You know all my deep dish. Guess that means that some things, they never—"
"Wait," Reggie interrupted. Mickey and Luke looked up at his confused face. "When she says, "deep dish," is she talking about, like, pizza, or...?"
"It's a girl thing," Mickey told him.
Then Alex poofed in the studio, landing on the piano. He was smiling happily, something he hadn't done much of since dying.
"Oh! Hey, man. Where you been?" Reggie asked him.
"Um, kinda everywhere," Alex said. "Yeah, no. I made a new ghost friend."
"For real?"
"Yeah. He answered a ton of questions," he said.
"Awesome," Mickey said, grinning. "Tell us everything."
"Yeah?" Luke said, pulling his songbook out from under Alex, who was sitting on top of it. "Like whether Julie's gonna join the band or not?"
"Um, well, we didn't... we didn't really get to that," Alex said, eying Luke for a moment before turning back to Reggie and Mickey. "But I think I know why we're here. Okay? All ghosts have, like, unfinished business. So, we need to do our unfinished business so that we can cross over."
"Why would we do that?" Luke asked, frowning. Mickey also wasn't sure how she felt about the prospect of moving on. I mean, she was starting to become friends with Carrie, and she hadn't even started the search for her family. "I'm just saying. This is like our second chance. All we need to do is get Julie to play with us."
"Yeah. Not only can that girl sing, she can write too," Reggie told Alex.
"We made a killer melody to her lyrics," Mickey added.
"Oh," Alex said as Luke handed him the notebook to look it over. "Without your drummer. Cool. I mean, Mickey isn't even officially in the band, but whatever." Mickey grinned, knowing he wasn't actually upset with her.
Luke hit Alex on the shoulder. "Drumming is so 90s. Okay? We're just gonna stomp our feet now," Luke said, messing with him. Mickey giggled at the annoyed look on Alex's face.
"Okay. Well, you know what else is so 90s? Being rude. All right? Get woke. These are sensitive times," he said, hitting Luke in the chest with the notebook.
"Ah! Alex," Luke whispered softly. "Ow."
Alex leaned over to whisper to Reggie. "Learned that from my ghost friend."
"Woke," Reggie repeated with an adorable grin on his face. "That's... that's a cool word."
"Yeah."
"What does it mean?" Mickey asked, smiling.
"No clue," Alex said, shaking his head.
Mickey shook her head but made a mental note to ask Carrie or Julie about it later. It sounded like a fun word to use, so she'd try and sprinkle it into her vocabulary. As a group, they worked on finishing the song with Julie's poem. Now that they were all together, the process went much quicker.
After a little while, Julie rushed into the studio with a panicked look on her face. She explained that she had told Flynn all about them being ghosts, but she didn't believe her. So, the plan was for them to perform the new song for her and prove that they were real. After working for another thirty minutes to finish and perfect the song, Julie texted Flynn, letting them know she was ready.
Mickey fixed the strap on her brother's guitar before setting up next to Reggie. He smiled at her as he turned up the volume on both of their amps. They were excited about performing together again.
"Thanks for coming. We just wanted to rehearse the song until it was perfect, which it's not, but whatever," Julie said to Flynn as she greeted her.
"No, if I'm gonna hear a song from your imaginary ghost band, I want it to be perfect. So, get back in there," Flynn told her. She also pointed at the empty air, nowhere near any of the ghosts. "All of you. You too."
Julie chuckled. "They're not out here."
"Oh, I know," Flynn said, patting Julie on the shoulder before entering the studio with a smirk on her face.
Julie shut the doors before looking around. "Alright guys, you ready?" Julie asked them. Each of them nodded except for Reggie.
"She's standing too close to me," he whined. Mickey chuckled and patted his shoulder comfortingly.
"Uh, actually, can you go over there? Reggie needs some space to rock out, and he feels kinda weird walking through you," Julie explained to Flynn.
Flynn laughed at the request. "Boy, when you create a world, you really live in it."
"Just sit," Julie said while pulling up a chair and pushing Flynn into it. "If you'll notice, there's no equipment that will produce a hologram. Feel free to look around."
Flynn pushed her hair over her shoulders and sat back, while Julie moved to stand behind her keyboard.
"The guys took a poem that I wrote about you and put it to music," Julie explained.
"Aww! I wish I didn't have to talk to your dad after this," Flynn said, frowning.
Julie chuckled. "It's called Flying Solo. Hope you like it."
Julie set the beat up and put it on repeat before sitting at the keyboard and singing. "If I leave you on a bad note, leave you on a sad note, guess that means I'm buying lunch that day. I know all your secrets. You know all my deep-dish. Guess that means some things they never, they never change. We both know what I, what I, what I mean. When I look at you it's like I'm looking at me."
When the beat dropped, the four ghosts started playing and flashed in. Flynn screamed and jumped back in her chair, making Mickey chuckle. She played the notes on her brother's guitar and sang the backup vocals.
"My life, my life would be real low, zero, flying solo. My life, my life would be real low, zero, flying solo without you. Hey, yeah, yeah. Hey, yeah, yeah. My life, my life would be real low, zero, flying solo without you."
Julie knelt in front of Flynn and held her hand to try and comfort her a little. Clearly, she wasn't expecting Julie to be telling the truth. "Yeah, you know who I'm likin' way before I liked them, duh. 'Cause you liked them first. And if somebody hurts you, I'm gonna get hurt too. That's just how we work, yeah, that's just how we work. It will never change. We both know what I, what I, what I mean. When I look at you it's like I'm looking at me. My life, my life would be real low, zero, flying solo. My life, my life would be real low, zero, flying solo without you. Hey, yeah, yeah. Hey, yeah, yeah. My life, my life would be real low, zero, flying solo without you."
Julie pulled Flynn over to Luke to show him off to her. He grinned at her, and when it got to the "hey"s in the song, he shouted at her, making Flynn flinch. Then Julie dragged her over to Alex, who acted much nicer and simply nodded at Flynn. Next, Julie led her to Mickey and Reggie, who were sharing a microphone. Mickey winked at Flynn as she played.
Flynn slowly put her hand through Reggie, shocked when it didn't make contact. He smiled goofily at her. "Weird, right?"
"They're ghosts!" she exclaimed, looking around at all of them. They all softly played their instruments so that they wouldn't disappear.
"Oh, and we prefer, uh, musician spirits," Alex told Flynn.
"Julie," Luke said, getting her attention. "So, does this mean you're joining our band?"
Before she could speak for herself, Flynn stepped up, tossing her hair over her shoulders. "Um, actually, I think you're joining her band."
"I'm gonna go with what she said," Julie said, leaning against Flynn and smirking at Luke. He grinned and shook his head before the beat picked up.
"My life, my life would be real low, zero, flying solo. My life, my life would be real low, zero, flying solo without you. Hey, yeah, yeah. Hey, yeah, yeah. My life, my life would be real low, zero, flying solo without you. You. You-ooh."
"Still wanna talk to my dad?" Julie asked Flynn while leaning their foreheads together.
"No, I'm good."
Julie embraced Flynn tightly, glad to have her best friend back. They giggled as the four ghosts happily watched from the side. Hopefully, things were starting to look up for all of them since dying.