| 𝙿𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚜𝚜 | 𝙹.𝙼𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚊 | 𝙲𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚍

5 | WAKE UP

     AFTER HAYDEN PERSUADED Luke to go and talk to Julie, just moments after she left, the girl stood just on the other side of the studio doors listening to their conversation with Reggie and Alex.

"Ahh! Stop that. I'm serious." They heard Julie say, obviously Luke had poofed right in front of her.

"I'm sorry." Luke apologized.

Julie crossed her arms. "What do you want?"

"I know this is all completely insane, but you do know how rad this is? People...actual people can hear us play!"

"Yeah, it's just I've had a really, really awful day." She began to walk past Luke. "I gotta go."

Luke followed her, making her stop. "Well, I'm sorry you had a bad day, but four tees just found out that they had a bad twenty five years, and then they found out that the one thing they lived for in the first place they can still do. That's pretty rad."

Hayden looked at Alex. "How come whenever we're in a bad mood, he just doesn't care?"

"He does care." Reggie said, but got looks from his friends, making him change his words. "Sometimes."

"You're right." The three ghosts turned their attention back to Julie and Luke. "It's just-"

"Your bad day." Luke nodded. "Yeah. I know. Look, I'm sorry we came into your life, but...what I just felt in there actually made me feel alive again. We all felt alive again. So, you can kick us out if you want, but we're not giving up music. We can play again! That's a gift no musician would ever turn down. You gotta know that. Clearly, your mom is into music."

Hayden thought back to when they went into the house, the woman there definitely wasn't her mom. The fourth place wasn't set up for dinner, the female ghost had a small feeling that maybe Julie had lost her mom.

"Was." That confirmed Hayden's suspicion. "She passed away."

Luke paused for a moment. "I am...so sorry."

The three ghosts then joined the pair and Hayden spoke up. "Yeah, we didn't know."

Julie looked at them and sighed. "It's alright. You guys haven't seen her anywhere, have you? From wherever you're from."

"No." Alex said. "No, I mean, you're kind of the first person we've seen."

"Yeah, but she's not dead, so it doesn't answer her question." Reggie said before getting elbowed by Hayden.

"Yeah, I think she knows what we mean." Alex glared at Reggie before looking back at Julie. "I'm sorry for your loss."

Julie nodded slightly. "Thanks. Sorry I got mad. You guys are kinda good."

Luke turned to the girl. "Kinda? You know that like twenty five years of rust just getting dusted off."

Reggie nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Do you play the piano too?" He asked, mentioning the grand piano in the studio.

"No." Julie replied quickly. "No, I don't play. That was my mom's stuff in there."

Hayden leaned on a rock in front of Julie. "No way. She's an amazing songwriter."

"She was." Julie smiled fondly. "Wait. How would you know?"

"There's a song on the piano. If it's hers..." She trailed of slightly. "Your mom was really talented."

Julie stood awkwardly for a moment before deciding to head inside, however, last second she stopped and faced the ghosts. "I guess...if you need a place to stay, you can stay in there. There's a bathroom in the back and a couch that turns into a bed if you still use any of that stuff."

"Dibs on the shower!" Reggie called out, putting his hand up. "I just really like showers and sometimes the occasional bath."

Hayden groaned slightly and put her head on the rock as Julie looked at Reggie weirdly. "This...this is just too weird." She then headed inside.

As the three boys went back into the studio, silently cheering that they were able to convince Julie that they could stay, Hayden finally lifted her head from the rock and caught sight of Julie through the bushes. It turns out that Julie saw her too, the pair waved each other goodnight before both headed inside.

Back inside the studio, the boys were trying to figure out where everyone was going to sleep while they stayed there. In the end, Alex and Hayden would stay up in the loft, Reggie already dibbed the bathroom so for some reason he was going to sleep in there and Luke got his infamous couch.

Instead of sleeping, however, Luke offered the idea of going out and seeing how much LA had changed in the past twenty five years and the band were up for it. They followed Luke's lead and ended up on top of the Orpheum sign, but not everything was in order. Hayden and Reggie both lost their shirts, Hayden quickly covered her chest with her jacket, despite the boys having seen her before (on accident) she didn't know if there were other ghosts around that could possibly see her.

"Hey, I know being dead isn't our first choice, but, I mean, it sure is easy getting around." Luke said, hitting Alex's leg.

"Easy for you maybe." Hayden said, glancing at Reggie. "We lost our shirts on that one!"

A second later, Reggie's shirt appeared on his body. Hayden loosened her jacket and saw that hers had also been brought back to her. "Never mind! There is it." Reggie smiled.

Alex then noticed where they were. "Okay, so, why'd you bring us here? Just another painful reminder of where we never got to play. Thanks Luke."

Both Reggie and Hayden looked at the lit up sign behind them, catching up on the conversation very quickly.

Luke rolled his eyes. "I mean, guys, the game isn't over yet." The four poofed down to the street below the sign and began to walk. "I'm telling you, we've been given a second chance. Let's find some music. Let's see how many clubs we can hit before sunrise."

Hayden chuckled a little but noticed that Alex bumped into someone and that he slowed down. She turned to see a man tilting a top hat at the boy in apology before continuing his way.

Hayden linked arms with the blonde boy. "Alex, come on. What a weird guy."

Just like Luke said, the four ran the streets of LA, looking at any and every club they could find. A lot didn't quite have the music they used to listen to, but in some they did. Hayden especially liked the club playing Queen music.

When the band finally got back to the studio, they heard music coming from inside. It was an angle voice and amazing piano skills.

"So wake that spirit spirit. I wanna hear it hear it. No need to fear it you're not alone. You're gonna find your way home. Wake up, wake up if it's all you do. Look out, look inside of you. It's not what you lost. It's what you'll gain. Raising your voice to the rain."

The four poofed behind the piano to see none other than Julie playing and singing.

"Wake up your dream and make it true. Look out, look inside of you. When you're feeling lost. Relight that spark. Time to come out of the dark. Wake up. Wake up."

Holy shit.