Believer // Julie and the Phantoms

05

Julie yelled at Luke, who'd returned to the box, "Oh, my gosh! I thought I told you to leave that alone!"

"I know," Luke replied. "You just should've said nothing, 'cause now I can't stop thinking about it, so... What's in the box, Julie?"

"It's just my dream box, okay? Whenever I get a thought, I write it down and get it out of my mind."

"Like lyrics?"

"They would be if I still wrote music like I used to with my mom. Now it's just full of stuff that doesn't make me sad."

Alex stood and said, "But I mean, you do play. We heard you this morning." Luke and Reggie glared at him and Luke swatted Alex's chest.

"In the garage? So you were there too?"

"Uh... I don't..." Alex began.

Reggie turned to Alex. "Uh... he was, like..."

"We were..."

"Somewhere."

Luke, who'd moved to lay on Julie's bed, held his head up with his hand and asked, "So where is your kitchen, by the way?"

"Okay, we need to set some boundaries," Julie told them. "For starters, stay out of my room!!" She pointed to the door.

The ghosts shot up. "Mm-hmm. Crystal clear. Let's go."

"We're leaving," Reggie said. "Yes, ma'am! We are out of here."

"Okay."

The three ran towards the door.

Alex popped his head back in and Alex said, "Hey. Um, sorry. We didn't mean to bother you. Did you get back into your music program?"

"No. No, I didn't," Julie replied as she looked down.

"I'm sorry. That really sucks."

"Thanks."

Alex glanced up and Julie asked, "Is that it?"

"Yeah. Yeah. This is getting weird," Alex said.

Julie waved at him.

"Okay," Alex stated as he disappeared.

---

Julie made her way downstairs. Carlos was laying on the couch playing a video game, Cameron was sitting on the far couch arm as she wrote something in a notebook and Ray was sitting on his laptop as he looked at pictures.

"Hey, Dad," Julie greeted as she entered the living room. "What'cha working on?" She pocketed her hands.

"Well, now that the house is on the market, we need to add some photos to the website," Ray replied, ushering Julie over. "Help me pick some good ones."

As Julie passed her brother, she moved his foot and he shot her an annoyed look. Cameron giggled and Carlos shot her a look which she returned.

Julie stood next to Ray as he showed her the photos and said, "Got this batch right here."

"These are really nice," Julie told her father.

"Yeah?"

Julie chuckled. "Yeah."

"Thanks." He switched to another batch of photos. "These didn't turn out, though." He switched to another picture and there were three glowing orbs near the piano. Julie looked at the screen. "The ones from Mom's studio. It's like... little lights and dots all over the place. Kinda look like orbs, right?"

Julie's eyes widened as she stared at the orbs.

Carlos and Cameron shot up and the former said, "Orbs? Cameron and I've seen some freaky stuff about those on YouTube." He and Cameron rested their arms on the back of the couch as they sat on their knees. "People say they're ghosts." Julie looked at her siblings. "Do you think that's Mom and she made some friends?"