DAD DIDN'T TALK THE whole car ride home. Julie and I were walking toward the front door, angrily, when he stopped us. "Julie, Belle, we need to talk. So, after missing school, skipping a lab," He looked to me. "and a test, you decided to sneak out even though I told the two of you to go to your room and study?"
Julie and I looked at one another before looking to dad. "We're sorry." We both said at once.
"Yea, you keep saying that. If you'd just... let me in, I could've been excited about tonight instead of having this conversation we all hate. Why didn't you tell me you were in a band?" His eyes were darting back and forth between Jules and me.
"We tried. It's just, you and tía with all your coming up with rules and punishments- there was no right moment." I shrugged, looking at Julie who nodded in agreement.
"And as for the band, it all happened so fast. These last couple of weeks have changed our lives, well mine anyway." Julie started.
"Mine too." I reached for her hand and wrapped my pinkie around hers in a comforting manor.
Julie smiled at me before continuing. "When I play music, I feel so much closer to mom."
"And I love that. You know I do. But your tía is right, school needs to come first."
"We know, but without the band, I would've never made it back into the music program. They played with us when I was trying to earn back my spot." Julie argued.
"They did?" I gave dad a reassuring nod.
"I think this is our thing dad." Julie had a look of vulnerability on her face.
"Well, I'd be a jerk of a dad if I took that away from you. Look, if you two are gonna stay in this band, you need to keep up with school. And you need to keep me in the loop." I stood up straight, now in a much better mood.
"Thank you, dad." I hugged him tightly while Julie stood back, not breaking our pinkies apart.
I felt dad chuckle under my embrace. "You guys still do that, huh?" He was staring at mine and Julie's connected pinkies.
"Why wouldn't we?" Julie smiled.
"You girls are just like your mother. I remember she used to do that all the time." I stood back next to Julie once again, listening to his story. "Whenever she was worried or anxious, or even happy. She would just take her pinkie and wrap it around mine. You girls too. Belle, did your mom ever tell you about that time at the ice cream shop?" I furrowed my eyebrows, shaking my head.
"It was right after you just got your ice cream cone, you were seven at the time. When you came home, your mom told me the story. She said she was sitting down on a bench and you were in front of her, balancing yourself on a plank of wood while walking back and forth. Then, she said, for a few seconds you froze, looking up at something that wasn't there. You dropped your ice cream cone and started crying, walking over to your mom. You told her that you'd seen a scary tall man dressed in a black shirt and a long purple jacket with jeans and purple shoes. That's when she wrapped her pinkie around yours and told you that nothing would happen as long as she was there by your side."
I smiled at the story. As we were finishing up our conversation, tía ran out of the house panting. "What happened?"
"This house is haunted, we have to go."
"Victoria, I know you want us to move, but this is a little extreme." She wasn't interested in making small talk.
"I'll let Carlos explain what happened. He refuses to leave, but if movies have taught me anything, when a house is haunted, you run." And with that, she ran to her car and sped away.
"You girls coming in?" Dad started for the door.
"You guys head in, I'm gonna hang in the garage for a minute." I pointed towards moms studio.
"Oh, I'll come with." Julie started walking in that direction.
"I think I should probably be in there alone tonight..." I tried to hint to her that I needed to talk to Reggie,
"Right, well tomorrow then." She quickly walked inside with dad.
I made my way over to the garage, opening the doors. "Guys, you here?" I didn't hear a response. I sighed, making my way to the piano. I sat down, laughing when I saw the sheet music for home is where my horse is. I played the first couple of notes and started goofing around, singing the lyrics.
"Belle?" I turned around, shocked when I heard Luke's voice. Standing behind me were Alex, Luke, and Reggie.
"You were singing my song." He said, shocked.
"Yea." I looked down, embarrassed.
"Well, we'll give you two some time to talk." Alex pulled Luke out by his arm.
"But I wanted to listen-"
"Hey." Reggie said, awkwardly standing.
"Hey." There was a brief pause. "We should probably talk about earlier..."
"Right." He sat down next to me. "I like you." He smiled, making me smile.
"I like you too." My smile faltered.
"What's wrong?" He frowned.
"How are we gonna do this?" He looked over at me, confused.
"What do you mean?"
"We can't touch, Reggie."
"We... we can make it work." He gave me a small smile. He turned to the piano and started to play his song (very badly, might I add). Nonetheless, it got me to laugh.
While we were playing notes on the piano and laughing at how bad Reggie played, we were interrupted. "Aww." I looked over to see Luke with a hand over his heart and an admirable look on his face.
"I tried to stop him." Alex held up his hands in defense.
The next morning, I woke up smiling. While I was fixing my hair in my mirror, there was a knock on my door. "Ready?"
"Yea." I grabbed my bag and Julie and I made our way down the stairs. When we got to the bottom of the stairs, we heard dad singing finally free.
We rounded the corner and there he was, Reggie standing next to him and singing along. "Morning beautiful. Oh, I was talking to Bee."
Julie laughed at my red face before looking back to our dad. "This is new."
"Yea, I was in the mood for cooking some breakfast." He tossed me a strawberry which I gladly accepted.
Reggie laughed. "He thought you were talking to him. Me and your dad are pals now. I am his son in law after all." Reggie winked at me which made Julie's mouth drop. "It's a little one-sided, but it works."
"Look, after the talk we had the other night, I was thinking that I may have cost you an opportunity with that manager. So, I was thinking-" Julie cut him off.
"Dad, no. We should've never snuck out."
"It was Luke's fault technically." I mumbled under my breath.
"Let the man speak. He's been stress eating all week. I don't know where he puts it, though. It's like... firm." I tried to push my smile away.
"I know, but I really want to support your band, so I called in some favors, and I booked you a local gig." My eyes went wide with joy.
"Best dad ever!" Reggie shouted.
"Dad, that's amazing. Where?" I smiled up at him.
"Well, I called Flynn, and she's gonna help us throw a party. Here. Tonight." My face went from excited to surprised.
"Oh... so you booked us a gig at our house?"
"Maybe I was a little early with the best dad ever award."
"Alright, hear me out. You invite some of your friends over, you play with your band, and I'll get some of my colleagues to put you guys on film. That way, you have something professional for your youtube." Julie and I chuckled.
"You'd do that for us, dad?" He nodded in response.
"Back to best dad ever. I'll go tell the guys. Have a good day at work, Ray." Reggie paused. "It's cool, you don't have to answer." He looked back to us and winked at me before poofing away.
I was standing at my locker, waiting for Julie to get her stuff, when Luke poofed up. "Normal people don't do that. And ghosts definitely shouldn't."
I looked between the two before clearing my throat. "Well, I'll be on my way then." I wiggled my eyebrows at Luke before walking away.
I was halfway to my class when Reggie poofed next to me. "Seriously, dude? You've gotta stop doing that." I held my hand over my heart.
"Sorry." He chuckled. "I just missed you."
I smiled at him, feeling my cheeks heat up. "Belle?"
I looked in the direction that the voice came from. "Nick! This is-" I pointed in the direction of Reggie, quickly putting my hand back down to my side. "Nothing, there's no one there." I laughed.
"I am." Reggie laughed, putting bunny ears next to Nick.
"Right. Listen, Kyle's looking for you. I think he's over by the music room." Nick gave me a smile before walking away.
"Who's Kyle?" Reggie looked at me, confused.
"Oh, no. He's no one." He didn't look convinced. "He's my dance partner." I shrugged.
"Oh. Is he- is he good looking?" He crossed his arms and stood up straight.
"Aww, Reg are you jealous?" He pouted. "He's just a friend. Promise."
After that conversation, it was time to go to class. I quickly put my bag down and made my way over to Kyle. "Hey. I was looking for you this morning."
"Oh, I heard. Sorry, I was busy."
"Here we go." The music started playing.
As we were dancing, all I could think about was Reggie. Every time Kyle touched me, I couldn't help but imagine it being Reggie touching me.
When the dance was finally over, Julie bolted out of the room. "What I wanted to talk about earlier..."
"Yea, can we talk later? Sorry, it's an emergency." I ran out of the room to find Julie.
Flynn entered the music room the same time that I did. "There you are. Why'd you run out of dance class so fast?"
"Sorry, I just needed some air. It was a little intense in there."
I sighed. "Tell me about it."
"You two just danced with two cute boys, that'll do that to a girl." Flynn smiled.
"Yea, but the whole time we were dancing, I was thinking about Luke." Julie glanced at me and then to the floor.
"It's like every time Kyle touched me, I was imagining Reggie in his place."
"Are you guys serious? They always say you want what you can't have but, this is next level. They're ghosts!"
"You're right, this is getting way out of hand. He's a ghost!" I head palmed myself.
"I think Nick likes me. Nick!" I squealed with excitement before earning a dirty look from Julie.
"Sorry, it's just that you've wanted this for so long." I shrugged.
"I did but, me and Luke just clicked. He's so..."
"Not real." Flynn shot daggers at the two of us. You can make all the music you want with them but, they'll always be phantoms." I groaned. "Here's what we're gonna do. You're gonna send Nick a nice little friendly text asking him to come to your party tonight.
"And you are gonna send a text to Kyle..." Flynn stuck her hand out waiting for me to put my phone in her hand. "Now they'll both be there. Since you're performing with them tonight, you two need to avoid eye contact at all cost."
I've been standing in front of my mirror for the past half an hour, trying to make sure my outfit looks fine. Julie decided that we should match outfits and it was a little out of my comfort zone.
Julie came into my room and pulled me out. "It's time. Now remember what Flynn said. No eye contact."
We walked out and Julie went right to the piano while I walked over to my guitar. As usual, she started on the piano and I lightly strum my guitar.
" Running from the past
tripping on the now
what is lost can be found, it's obvious
and like a rubber ball
we come bouncing back
we all got a second act inside of us "
The boys poofed up behind us and I started singing into my mic next to Luke, avoiding Reggie.
" I believe
I believe that we're just one dream
away from who we're meant to be
that we're standing on the edge of
something big, something crazy
our best is yet unknown
that this moment is ours to own
cause we're standing
on the edge of great
great
cause we're standing on the edge of "
I could feel Reggie's eyes on me. I glanced in his direction as Luke started singing and he motioned for me to come over to him. I tried to play it off like I didn't see it.
" We all make mistakes
but they're just stepping stones
to take us where we wanna go
it's never straight, no
sometimes we gotta lean
lean on someone else
to get a little help
until we find our way "
Reggie made his way over to me and Luke so I walked over to where Julie was.
"This is impossible." I said between breaths and she stuck her pinky out to me which made me smile.
" I believe
I believe that we're just one dream
away from who we're meant to be
that we're standing on the edge of
something big, something crazy
our best is yet unknown
that this moment is ours to own
cause we're standing
on the edge of great
great
great
cause we're standing on the edge of
shout, shout
come on and let it out, out
don't gotta hide it
let your colors blind their eyes
be who you are, don't compromise
shout, shout
come on and let it out, out
what doesn't kill you makes you feel alive "
Luke left me, walking over to Julie, which meant Reggie was now on his way over to me. I started freaking out and once he was next to me, I broke the eye contact rule.
" Oh, I believe
I believe that we're just one dream
away from who we're meant to be
that we're standing on the edge
of great
something big, something crazy
our best is yet unknown
that this moment is ours to own
cause we're standing
on the edge of great
on the edge of great
on the edge
whoa-oa-oa-oa
standing on the edge of "
Reggie and Alex disappeared but Luke was singing with Julie and I was strumming softly.
" Running from the past
tripping on the now
what is lost can be found
it's obvious "
"I can't say this enough, that was incredible. But epic fail on that eye contact thing." Flynn whispered the last part.
"So how do you do those holograms?" Carlos asked through a mouth of pizza
"Oh, don't try to understand it, Carlos. I don't."
"That's because you're old." I nervously fidgeted with my shirt.
"Funny guy. I'd send you to your room, but then who's gonna clean up this mess?" We all chuckled at dads joke.
"Don't mess with papa bear." I shrugged.
"So what are the boys doing right now?" Dad asked as Carlos walked away.
Julie, Flynn and I looked at each other, trying to think up a lie. "Hanging out, I guess. You know, or whatever you do when you're from where they're from. Hey, so, what cameras did you use out there?" Julie asked, changing the subject.
Finally, I went up to my room and called it a night. Only when I opened my bedroom door, there sat a distressed Alex.