Julie's POV

"Julie! Wake up!"

I yelped and shot up in bed, my eyes flying open. Flynn was standing next my bed, a green flyer in her hand. I looked over at my alarm clock.

5:03 a.m.?

"Flynn!" I groaned, rubbing my eyes. "What are you doing here so early? We don't have to get up for school for another hour!" Flynn shoved the flyer in my face as a response.

"Look!" She exclaimed as I took the paper from her hands. "You got another gig!" My eyes widened.

"Wow, that's great, Flynn!" I said, scanning over the paper. Flynn immediately snatched it back, an annoyed look on her face.

"That's your reaction? I was hoping for a little more enthusiasm because you're playing the Orpheum! AGAIN!" My jaw dropped and I scrambled out of bed.

"Wait, are you serious?" I yelled. "They want us back there again?" Flynn nodded aggressively.

"Yeah, and you're not opening for another band this time- another band is opening for you!" I squealed and danced around my room.

"Wow! This is insane!" I shouted, giving Flynn a bone crushing hug. "I can't believe this!" Flynn laughed and hugged me back. I really couldn't believe it. When had we gotten so popular that the people at the Orpheum wanted us as the main event?!?

"Julie, what in the world is going on?" My dad said angrily as he swung the door open. Flynn and I froze as he walked into the room.

"Flynn, why are you here so early?" He asked, giving us his "angry eyes," as Carlos calls them.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Molina, but Julie's band is going to be the main event at the Orpheum next Friday!" Flynn said, untangling herself from the hug. Dad's eyes widened.

"Seriously? Wow that's amazing, Julie!" he laughed, rushing forward to give me a hug. I giggled and patted him on the back.

My dad suddenly stiffened and cleaned his throat.

"But no more screaming at 5 a.m., okay?" He said sternly. "And Flynn, you're not allowed here before seven unless you're sleeping over." Flynn and I looked at the ground and nodded sheepishly.

"Okay, good," my dad said, before breaking out into another smile. "The Orpheum again! Woo!" He exclaimed as he left the room. Flynn and I looked at each other and laughed quietly before going in for another hug. I couldn't wait to tell the guys-

Oh my gosh. I have to tell the guys. I jumped away from the hug, my eyes wide.

"I gotta go tell the guys!" I told Flynn before rushing out of my room.

"Wait! What if they don't want to be woken up this early?"

"They can deal with it!"

I reached the bottom of the stairs and ran outside, excited to see the boys' reaction. When I reached the studio, I flung the doors open to see Luke, Alex, and Reggie sleeping soundly on their air mattresses.

I rushed over to Luke and swiped his pillow from under his head, which fell limp, crashing onto the mattress.

"Ahhhh!" He let out an ever-so-masculine scream, jumping off the mattress and to his feet. His shriek woke Alex and Reggie, who immediately jumped up as well, looking around wildly.

"What's going on?" Reggie yelled. "I thought I heard a little girl scream!" I burst out laughing when Luke gave Reggie an offended look. The boys whipped their heads around, and once they noticed me, they sent their most hurtful death glares in my direction. I smirked, crossing my arms across my chest.

"Julie, what is wrong with you?" Alex groaned, tilting his head towards to ceiling.

"Sorry," I said in a very unapologetic voice, "but I thought you might want to hear the news." The guys stopped glaring and looked at me curiously.

"What news?" Reggie asked.

"Well... apparently, we were so good last week that..." I said, pausing for dramatic affect. Luke made a go on motion with his hands.

"They want us back at the Orpheum as the main event!" I finished, swinging my arms out like I was trying to hug the air. Reggie, Alex, and Luke's jaws dropped immediately.

"Are- are you serious?!?" Luke exclaimed. I nodded, a giant smile stretching across my face as all three of them jumped into the air and started whooping.

"For real? This isn't a joke?!?" Reggie yelled, jumping on top of the coffee table and spinning around. I giggled and shook my head. Alex laughed and joined Reggie in dancing on the coffee table.

"Wow, this is- wow!" Luke shouted, running up to me. He grabbed my waist and lifted me into the air, spinning me around as he laughed. I joined in as he put me down and engulfed me in a giant bear hug, knocking me off balance. I wrapped my arms around his back to steady myself. 

"Careful!" I said, giggling into Luke's chest as we finally stopped stumbling around. I closed my eyes and squeezed him tighter. I felt so warm and protected in Luke's arms...

"Wait, what song are we gonna do?" Luke asked suddenly. As much as I didn't want to, I pulled my head away to look him in the eyes.

"Well, we've only written one since the Orpheum, and since we have, like, a week and a half, I'm sure we'll get some more done," I reassured him. Luke nodded and pulled my head back to his chest, obviously not wanting the hug to end (and neither did I). 

"Julie!" Flynn called, opening the studio doors. "Come on, since I woke you up early we have some extra-" Flynn trailed off as she saw me enveloped in Luke's arms. I sly grin spread across her face.

"Time," she finished, leaning against the door. "Am I interrupting something?" 

"Nope!" I said loudly, pulling away from the hug as Alex and Reggie hopped down from the coffee table and walked to our sides. "Just celebrating." Flynn nodded slowly, a knowing look in her eyes.

"Well, as I was saying, we have a lot of extra time before school," she said. "What do you want to do?" I shrugged, and then realized that Flynn hadn't actually had a conversation with the guys since they found out they could make themselves visible.

"You wanna talk to the guys? I know you haven't done that before," I said, chuckling to myself as I saw Flynn's eyes light up.

"Yeah! I have sooooo many questions," she said, running over to the couch.

"Just don't ask if we can go to the bathroom," Alex piped up. Flynn gave him a quizzical look.

"Carlos asked them that question last week," I laughed. "It got pretty awkward." Flynn rolled her eyes.

"I wasn't gonna ask that, Alex, I assume?" Alex nodded, and Flynn turned her head. "So you're Reggie." 

"Y-yeah, I am," Reggie said, surprised. 

"How'd you know which one of us was Reggie?" Luke asked.

"Oh, Luke, it was easy," Flynn replied with an evil glint in her eye. Uh-oh. 

"Julie talks about you so much, I'd know you anywhere." My face heated up as I glared at Flynn, who looked like she was about to burst out laughing. 

"Oh, really? You've talked about me?" Luke asked, smirking as he leaned in close to my face. I gave him a deadpan expression and shoved his face away.

"Uh, yeah," I said nonchalantly (internally, I was freaking out). "I've told her about all the songs we've written together." I was kind of proud of myself for making that excuse believable, and not missing a beat. I also didn't miss Reggie walk over to Flynn and not-so-subtly try to give her a high-five (which resulted in her hand passing through his, but I got the message).

"Oh," Luke said, his smile faltering a little. "Yeah, that makes sense." I shook my head and silently scowled and Reggie and Flynn, who were smirking at me.

"Do you wanna talk to them or not?" I asked Flynn in a tone that said if you say anything else like that I will personally shove you down a well. Flynn rolled her eyes and turned to Alex.

"You're the drummer, right?" She asked. Alex nodded. "Okay, well, I have a question. I get how Luke and Reggie poof in with their guitars, but how do you poof in with the drums? I mean, it's not like you can hold them."

"Well, as long as I'm in the seat behind the drums, they poof with me," Alex answered. Flynn nodded.

"Oh, that's cool. I've always wondered how that worked," she said, kicking her feet up onto the table.

"Sooooo how did you guys die?"

"Flynn!" I yelled, worried that the subject of their death might be a sensitive topic for them.

"What?"

"You can't just ask them that!" I hissed through my teeth. Luke put a hand on my shoulder.

"It's fine, Jules," he said. "We've made, like, tons of jokes about our death, remember?" I rolled my eyes, remembering the night of the Orpheum, when we found out I can touch them. We were watching a movie on Luke's couch in silence when all of a sudden Reggie said,

"Hey, do you guys remember when we died?" Causing Alex and Luke to burst out laughing. The guys spent the next twenty minutes making all sorts of hot dog jokes. 

"Yeah, I remember," I responded. Luke turned to Flynn and said,

"So, basically, it was just a cold night in '95. We were supposed to be playing at the Orpheum."

"Was gonna be our big break, too," Reggie butted in.

"But a few hours before," Luke continued, "we decided to get some street dogs- hot dogs served out of the trunk of a car- not knowing that they were... well, poisoned I guess. So we ate them, we died, and bam! Now we're here."

Flynn stared at Luke with the most judgemental look I've ever seen her give anyone.

"You guys," she said slowly, "ate hot dogs out of the TRUNK OF A CAR and expected to be fine?!?" She said, her sentence ending in a shout.

"We'd had them, like ten times before!" Luke exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air. "And they hadn't killed us yet!"

"Which is what I told them," Reggie said.

"Yeah, like twenty minutes before we died!" Alex shouted. Reggie rolled his eyes at him.

"Dying wasn't all bad," Luke said. "If we never died, we never would've never met Julie." He gave me a dazzling smile that made my heart melt, and somehow, I managed to return it without collapsing.

"Yeah, I'm sure you're grateful for those hot dogs, right, Romeo?" Flynn asked him, the smirk (that seemed to have become a regular facial expression for her lately) returning. Reggie cracked up as Luke turned red.

"I like you," Reggie said, wiping a tear away from his eye. Flynn sassily tossed her hair over her shoulder, looking smug as ever.

"No, I-I mean, we never would've gotten to write music with Julie," Luke sputtered, avoiding my eyes.

"Uh huh," Flynn said, getting off the couch and walking over to me. "Come on, Julie. Let's go get breakfast." She slung her arm around my shoulder and walked me to the doors.

"By, guys!" I called, twisting my head around. "I'll see you after school!" They waved in response, and I shot Luke a small smile before closing the studio doors behind me.

"Oh my gosh, Julie," Flynn said, turning around to face me once we were far enough away from the studio. "If that wasn't enough proof for you, I don't know what is!"

"What do you mean?" I asked, scrunching my nose in confusion.

"I mean the fact that Luke is totally in love with you!" She cried, throwing her hands into the air. My face started to hear up again.

"Flynn, there wasn't any proof," I said, although I heard a hint of uncertainty in my voice. He did seem to get a little upset when I told him I only talked about our music with Flynn...

"He called you 'Jules!'" Flynn exclaimed, crossing he arms. "Only I call you that! Julie, wake up! He likes you back!" My heart raced as I bit my lip. Could Luke actually... like me like me?

"Okay, there might be a possibility that he likes me," I mumbled, "although that chance is very slim." Flynn sighed and wrapped her arm around my shoulder again.

"Progress," she said to herself, walking me back into my house. I shook my head and laughed as we walking into the kitchen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Julie's POV

When we got to school, I convinced Flynn to let me take the long route to my locker. I still hadn't told her about all of my strange encounters with Nick, and I honestly wasn't planning on it. Luke knowing was bad enough- I just hoped he hadn't told Alex and Reggie.

"Ugh, I don't know why you want to go this way, but fine," Flynn complained as we walked up the stairs to the North hallway.

"I... I wanted to stop by the music room," I said, thinking quick on my feet. Flynn squinted at me.

"The music room is closed today, remember? Ms. Harrison is sick," she said. I slapped my forehead.

"Right! I totally forgot!" I groaned. Obviously, I hadn't, but Flynn didn't need to know that. "Let's just keep going. We're almost there, anyways."

When we finally reached our lockers, I breathed a sigh of relief. I had only opened my locker when Flynn groaned.

"Look out, Wicked Witch of The West heading our direction," she muttered, and sure enough, Carrie was strutting towards us. I sighed and prepared myself for any insult she was going to throw in my direction.

"Hi, girls!" Carrie said in her usual cheery voice- but something was different.

"Go back to poisoning your apple, Carrie," Flynn snarled before turning to her locker. I , however, didn't turn back around, as I watched Carrie's face fall, followed by a depressing sigh.

"Look..." she started. Her voice was so different this time, it caused Flynn to shut her locker and turn around.

"What do you want?" Flynn asked coldly. Carrie stared at her nails.

"I... I'm sorry," she said quietly. What?

Flynn and I shared looks of disbelief. Did we just hear her correctly? Did Carrie Wilson just apologize to us?

"Uh, run that by me again?" Flynn asked, cocking an eyebrow. Carrie sighed again and looked up at us, her eyes filled with sincerity.

"I'm so sorry, you guys. You were my friends, and after... well, you know," she said, glancing at me quickly. I swallowed. She was talking about when my mom died.

"I've just... I've been horrible to you two. I get it if you won't forgive me, I just... I wanna say that I'm so, so sorry." My jaw dropped as Carrie put her head down. As much as I wanted to hold a grudge for all the nasty things she's done, I could tell that she was being sincere. I put my hand on her shoulder and she looked up at me, her eyes filled with tears.

"It's okay," I said softly. "I know she was like a mother to you, too." Carrie bit her lip and gave me a small smile. After her mom left when she was little, I know she looked up to my mom as much as I did. When my mom died, Carrie couldn't handle the loss of another mother figure in her life, and although nothing excuses her behavior, it just pushed her over the edge.

I decided, in that moment, to forgive her- however, Flynn didn't seem to feel the same way.

"And why should we believe you?" She asked. "All three of us know what a fake you are." I whipped my head around.

"Flynn! She's being sincere," I said. Flynn snorted.

"And how are you so sure?" She looked at Carrie. "What made you come around?" Carrie glanced at me.

"My dad wanted to go to the Orpheum and see you play, so he brought me along. And the song you and your band sang- it, it just made me realize that even after everything I put you through, you were better then me. You were stronger  then me." She said in a shaky breath. Flynn's face soften, and she sighed in defeat.

"Fine. We can be friends again," she said hesitantly, "but you better not be messing with us." Carrie smiled at Flynn.

"Thank you. And, again- I'm sorry," she said. She gave us both a small smile before walking off. Her walk wasn't as snobby or peppy anymore, but it was still a happy walk.

"Well, that was unexpected," Flynn muttered. I sighed.

"I know," I said. "I'm just glad she came around." Flynn and I grabbed our books and turned to go to class, but we were stopped by a familiar voice that made shivers go down my spine.

"Julie."

I turned around slowly and my blood ran cold. It was Nick.

Dun dun dun! 

Hey everyone. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I know it's kind of slow, but I promise that it'll pick up and get better soon.

That's all for now! See you guys tomorrow!