As I walk down the full school halls, I see a girl wearing a bright red hat.
"Hey, Jules. Nice hat." Julie looks up at me from under her quite large baseball cap.
"Oh hey, Kendall. I'm trying to stay invisible." I look at her for a long second. Invisible? With a bright red hat on?
"Good luck with that. Are you even allowed to wear hats at school?" Julie sends me a glare followed by a dramatic eye roll. Rude.
I've known Julie forever. Apparently, I even saw her the second after birth. Gross. Anyway, Julie and I are neighbors. Our mothers were best friends until the day they died. With them being best friends it was sort of a given for me and Julie. She's like a second daughter to my father and I to hers.
About a year ago our mothers we're going on a girl's weekend and we're hit by a truck. They didn't make it. So it's been pretty hard for both of us.
"Hey, underachievers!" Flynn says as she walks up to us. I look over at Carrie who is motioning me to come over with her. I wave goodbye to the girls and head over to her.
In 6th grade our little friend group had a falling out. Carrie wanted to form a dance group and the girls didn't accept. Carrie quickly worked her way up the social ladder pulling me with her. In just 6th grade we were some of the most popular girls at school.
The hard part is, I am Julie's neighbor. So we continued to stay best friends while Carrie, Julie and Flynn continued to hate each other's guts.
As Carrie worked up the food chain, she started to be a little rude to her ex bffs. I always tried to get the group back together which just resulted in chaos.
"Hey girl!" She says. She's next to her boyfriend Nick and his best friend Jack. I've had a crush on him for countless years. He seems to just see me as a friend.
Carrie hands me some flyers, and signals me to pass them out.
"See you at the rally!!" She says. I smile and hand a flyer to a passing freshman. Carrie looks over and notices her ex best friends snickering in the corner and walks over to them.
"This can't be good." I whisper to Jack. He nods his head.
"When is it ever good?" He states. I laugh lightly. He sends me a million dollar smile.
"Here you go. My group's performing at the spirit rally tomorrow. I'm sure you two have nothing better to do." Carrie sneers at the poor girls.
"Oh my gosh, Carrie. Thanks!" Flynn says in a sarcastic high pitched voice. I bite my lip to restrict myself from laughing.
"Oh my gosh, Flynn. Don't bother coming!" Carrie says spinning on her heel.
"They are hopeless. I almost feel bad for them." Carrie says rudely. I nod my head.
"DEMON!" We suddenly hear. I turn around to see Flynn and Julie laughing into their lockers.
•••
As Nick finishes up his guitar solo, I look over to Julie. She knows she's next.
"Nice job Nick. Almost as impressive as your game against Glendale." The teacher says hyping him up. Everyone likes Nick. Even the teachers.
"Okay, we have one last more performance. Julie, you're up!" The teacher explains excitedly. Julie slowly stands up and takes off her hat nervously. It was hard for Julie to get back into music. She's been trying so hard, but just can't. It took me a while too, but with our dance competitions I had to suck it up.
Julie slowly walks up to the piano. And opens up her music. She takes a deep breath and sits down. She stares at her music for a while. The classroom is so quiet I can hear my heart beating.
"Take your time." Mrs. Harrison says softly. Julie opens the top of the piano and puts her hands on the keys. Come on Julie. You can do it. She quickly pulls her hands away from the piano like it's a hot potato. Flynn and I stand up quickly, to go to her rescue.
"I'm sorry." Julie says sadly. Mrs. Harrison sighs.
"Is this when we clap?" Carrie asks rudely. Julie runs out of the room with tears in her eyes.
"Watch it, Carrie." Flynn barks pushing by her. I want to follow, but it would just cause more drama in general. I make a mental note to ask Julie if she's okay later.
•••
When I get home from school, I do the normal.
1. Grab a snack
2. Do homework
3. Practice choreography
4. Write songs
5. Eat dinner alone
But today my father tells me he wants to have a 'family dinner'. Can it be a family dinner if we don't act like a family?
Then at approximately 5:43 I get a text from Julie.
jules🦋
dad wants to take pics
for the realtor soon.
can you help me clean
out the studio?
yeah sure jules
be there in 5
read 5:46
So I put on some shoes. And walk to the studio.
"Hey, Kendall." Julie says from behind me.
I turn around. "Hey, Jules. You ready to do this thing?" She sends me a sad smile and nods her head. If they sell the house it will be like losing a piece of our history.
"I miss them." I say as we walk into the studio. I've had so many memories here. I pretty much grew up here. I learned to play the guitar, drums, and sing in here. This is more like home than my actual house.
"Me too." Julie states while flickering on the lights.
For a few minutes, we walk around in silence. Taking in the views of the studio. I walk over to the grand piano and pull off the cover. The sheet falls to the ground softly. Julie runs her hands around the piano, touching it softly. She heads towards the front of the piano and sits down. She looks up at the sky and says "I'm so sorry mom, that I haven't been in here." Julie hasn't gone here since our parents died. I used to come every day for the first month after they passed. I would sit in here and cry. Alone.
I leave Julie's side and head up to the loft. I look around at all the junk. I see lots of instruments and even some old drum sticks. The loft is tiny, and kind of cramped. Then I see a cool CD.
"Hey what's this?" I say picking up a CD that says "Sunset Curve"
"Not sure. Bring it down here." Julie asks. I slowly and carefully climb down from the loft.
I hand the CD to Julie and she inspects it. "Should we play it?" Julie asks, handing the old CD back to me.
"Definitely." I say walking over to the CD player. I carefully slide it in and press play.
As soon as the song starts, Julie and I bop our head to the beat. The song is super catchy and almost rock-n-roll like.
♪ Take off
Last stop
Count down till we blast open the top
Face first, Full charge ♪
Before the song can continue I hear this awful screeching sound. I look over at Julie who is currently covering her ears. The screams continue to get louder.
"What kind of music is this?!" I yell over the screaming.
Suddenly three people are on the ground, groaning. Julie and I stand up abruptly. What the actual heck.
They all slowly stand up and gasp for air loudly.
"Woah! Wow. How did we get back here?" The guy in the middle asks. If this was a normal situation I would've pointed out that he was cute.
"AHHHHHHHHH!!" Julie screams. I'm not that much of a screamer so I just stand up quickly, trying to process what just happened. All of the guys jump up and down and scream at us. After Julie runs out screaming, the boys stare at me before suddenly going somewhere else. Like they poofed out of thin air.
"Drama queen." I say referring to Julie's actions.
Julie then comes running back into the studio holding the cross that usually hangs on the left of her bed.
"Good idea." I state. She nods, and motions for me to grab the cross. We spin around scanning the area to make sure the boys don't jump out at us.
"Are you still here... whatever you are?" Julie mutters. After a couple of seconds, we drop the cross.
"I know we saw something. We're not crazy." I say out loud. Suddenly I hear a sound behind us.
"Well, we're all a little crazy." The boy in the middle exclaims. He has brown hair and dark green eyes that are almost hazel. The one on his left has black hair or super dark brown hair, and dark brown eyes. The third one on the right has light blonde hair and light green eyes.
"AHHHHHH!!" Julie yells holding the cross out in front of herself. I just stand there, awkwardly. Trying not to scream too.
"Oh my god! Please stop screaming!" The light blonde one yells while plugging his ears. With that Julie shuts up.
"Who are you? And why are you in out mothers studio? Ever heard of trespassing?" I say for Julie, who obviously can't speak right now.
"Your mom's studio? This is our studio." The hazel-eyed boy questions while walking towards us."Trust me, my-" Julie points the cross at his chest and he quickly backs up. The poor dude can't even get a word out. "-The grand piano is new, and... and... and... My couch!!" He yells excitedly. This is so freaking weird.
He jumps onto the couch happily and starts to giggle like a little girl.
"That is definitely not my six-string." He says pointing to my mothers guitar. He looks around at the room looking quite confused. He abruptly stands up.
"Can you give me just one second? Just... a second. Thank you." He asks running away from Julie and her cross.
"What just happened?" Julie whispers to me nervously. I shrug.
"This is definitely the weirdest thing I've experienced." I say. There is a bunch of random dudes in our mom's studio, and they are having a little huddle on the other side of the room. This is so weird.
"Their not witches!" Someone whisper yells. Do they know we can hear them?
The blonde dude steps away from his little group and walks up to us. "Why are you in our studio?" He comes off strong, and the two boys in the back notice this and roll their eyes.
Julie quickly tries to touch him, and her hand goes straight through his chest.
"Oh my gosh! How can you do that?" Julie asks. Okay, THIS IS NOT A NORMAL SITUATION.
"Clearly, you're not understanding... She doesn't get it." He says turning to his friends. "Okay, look. We're ghosts, all right? We're just three ghosts, and we're really happy to be home. So, thank you for the flowers. They really brighten up the room." I look over at Julie. Her mouth is wide open. My mouth opens too and my eyes open as wide as saucers.
"We're in a band called Sunset Curve." The six-string guy explains.
"Tell your friends."
"Last night was supposed to be a really big night for us. It was going to change our lives." six-string continues.
"I'm, uh... I'm pretty sure it did." The blonde one whispers loudly.
"This is freaking me out!" I say pulling out my phone. I immediately go to google and start to look up "Sunset Swerve".
"What is that? What are you doing?" six-string asks pointing to the device in my hand.
"It's my phone." I say. Julie gives me a look.
"No! Stop talking to them. They aren't real." Julie says pushing her cross out a little farther.
"You're right there's no such thing as cute ghosts." I add.
"Oh, so you think we are cute?" The one in the black leather jacket smirks. Six-string smiles brightly and I think my heart melted a little.
"Who ya calling?" The blonde one asks.
"I'm googling Sunset Swerve." I say. They all look at me like I'm the biggest idiot ever.
"Sunset Curve!" they all say in unison.
"Woah. There is a Sunset Curve." I explain making sure to say the curve part the loudest. "You did die. But not last night. Twenty-Five years ago?" I say. I then continue silently scrolling through the article.
"What? No. No, no, no. Th-Th-That's impossible. after we floated out of the ambulance, all we did was go to that weird, dark room where Alex cried." Leather jacket explains.
"Well... I don't think... I think we were all pretty upset. Okay." The one who is known as "Alex" says in a super high-pitched voice.
"But that was just for like an hour. We just showed up here." Six-string explains.
"Look. She's just telling you what her phone says." Julie states I stick out my phone for the three slightly confused boys to read.
"See? You died in 1995. When you were 17. It's now in 2020." I say. They all stare at me.
"So, this is the future?" leather jacket exclaims. Julie rolls her eyes.
"Wait. So... So, it has been 25 years. I have been crying for 25 years? How is that possible?!" Alex yells.
"Well, you're a very emotional person."
"I am not!" Alex yells dramatically.
"That was dramatic." I say. He just stares at me.
"Thought you were afraid to come out here." Carlos asks sneaking up on us. "You talking to your ghost friend? How does he look? Is he hideous?" Actually the opposite.
"He can see you." Alex says to leather jacket.
"No, he can't." Julie says quickly. Carlos looks at us quizzically.
"What?" He asks looking around the studio.
"Oh-h uh hey Kendall! I-I didn't know you were h-here." Carlos stutters. Apparently Carlos has a little crush on me.
"Ooo Julie's little brother has a crush on you!" Six-string jokes. I fight the urge to roll my eyes.
"Uh..." Julie starts.
"Carlos, everything okay?" I say trying to diffuse the tension.
"Yeah, Carlos. What do you want?" Julie asks.
"I want a normal sister, for starters. Stop being weird and come eat. Oh, dad says you are welcome to eat with us." Carlos explains pointing at me. I blow him a kiss which makes him blush before walking out.
"Thanks, but my dad wants to have a 'family dinner.' " I say to Julie. She nods her head.
"He couldn't see you." Julie says to the ghost boys.
"Yeah. I mean, that's... usually how ghosts work." Alex tells us.
Julie starts to walk away leaving me standing there, before turning around and saying "Look, I'm very sorry for what happened to you guys, but this isn't your studio anymore. You have to leave." Wow. That was harsh.
"But wait. We..." six-string stutters getting Julie's attention. "We didn't get your names."
"I'm Julie and that's-"
"Kendall. I'm Kendall nice to meet you guys." I finish for her.
"Cool." Six-string says awkwardly.
"I-I'm Luke, by...by the way." Luke says walking towards Julie. He sends her a smile but she immediately sticks up her cross. He jumps back and walks towards me.
"And this is-" Luke says while facing me. He stops for a second, it seems like he's studying me. I just smile. He shakes his head like he's trying to remove a thought before pointing at his friend.
"Reggie. I'm Reggie. Hey." He smiles and sends a wink.
"And..."
"Alex. How's it going?"
"Ba-da..." Luke says giving his friends sad jazz hands. Aw, they are cute.
"Okay?" Julie asks rudely and starts walking away. They all turn to me.
"Julie seems nice." Reggie states.
"Did you miss the part where he kicked us out, or..." Alex asks. Reggie looks at him confused.
"Hey, uh sorry about that. It's not every day you meet three ghosts." I say. They all send me disappointed smiles.
"It's okay. She just uh- needs to warm up to us right?" Luke asks. He sounds like he's trying to convince himself.
"Look. I'm totally cool with you guys staying here, but this is not my garage. I live over there-" I say pointing to the house next door. "-If you ever need anything."
"Thanks. We'll see you after dinner?" Alex says politely.
"Yeah sure. Uh- do you mind if I..." I say gesturing touching them.
"Yeah, no problem. Go ahead." Luke says. So I stick my hand closer to him. But instead of my hand going through him, I just poke his chest.
"Ouch. Wait how did you-"
"Dinner time." Dad says walking through the door quickly, like he is trying to escape my mother. As soon as he turns around I wave goodbye.
•••
For some weird reason, Luke was pretty chill about this. How could he not be? That girl he saw a couple of minutes ago made him feel chill. She was awkward and quite confused. But that's normal right? Like when you meet ghosts for the first time. Honestly Luke can't relate.
"That was um-interesting." Alex concludes.
"I'm kinda freaking out. How can she touch me?" Luke asks the boys, they just shrug.
"I wonder if we can eat? If we can I want pizza. No donuts. No I definitely want a meatball sub." Reggie says. Luke and Alex ignore the poor boy.
"We should go explore!"