Hold On --- Luke Patterson

Part 8 - Do or don't break a leg?

The following day, both Flynn and I found ourselves in the music room, stretched out on a couple of chairs. Flynn was dramatically making what one would call sad trumpet noises as I just listened and added the occasional ting, using the triangle in my hands.

After a while, Julie came striding in, halting as she looked like she was questioning our sanity.

"What are you doing?" She exclaimed, causing Flynn to drop the trumpet from her lips from beside me. "And where is everyone?"

We both sighed before Flynn spoke up. "Spirit assembly. We were kind of blowing it off 'cause we weren't feeling very spirity."

Julie sighed as well. "You okay?" I asked her, slowly sitting up.

"Not really." She turned to Flynn, explaining her original plan. "I had this new plan to play for Mrs. Harrison, hoping that she'd let me back in, but... I guess I missed my chance."

I frowned. "I thought your plan was to play at the assembly?"

She shook her head. "I don't know, Ab. It's a stretch to play in front of the teacher, I don't think I could pull it off in front of the whole school."

Flynn smirked and put down the instrument she was holding. "Yes, you could." She pulled me off my chair and began to pull me along to Julie, waving the girl over before flinging an arm over both of our shoulders.
——
As we walked into the gym, I knew who was performing without having to look at her face, or even listening to her voice. The sparkly outfits and the lights that caused a piercing pain through my skull were a dead giveaway.

Julie looked up at me. "You good?" She asked worriedly.

I sighed. "Meh. I'm sure Carrie has that effect on other people too."

She giggled and looked over to the performance as Flynn spoke up.

"Look who spent all her daddy's money on costumes and Katy Perry's choreographer." She crossed her arms, looking at said girl with a prominent look of distaste on her face.

Julie sounded a bit more insecure. "Well, it paid off."

We continued to watch a bit longer before three boys suddenly appeared next to me. Both Julie and I jumped, Flynn didn't notice.

Julie decided on the not-so-subtile approach once more and hissed: " What are you doing here?"

Luke grinned in excitement. "We wanna see you stick it to the man."

I smiled softly upon hearing his voice, my eyes glued to Carrie's performance, not wanting to get Flynn's attention.

The ghost and I ended up talking about everything and nothing for a long time last night. Eventually I fell asleep, him not being anywhere in my room the following morning.

I could feel eyes on me and turned around. I caught Luke's gaze, him sending me a quick wink and chuckling as a pink shade appeared on my cheeks. I shifted my eyes to the other two, Reggie sent me a quick smile while Alex was glaring at the side of Luke's head. He diverted his gaze to me, grinning once more.

I snapped out of my analysing as Reggie spoke up.

"Man, I miss high school." His eyes were locked on the dancing girls. Everyone of us looked over this time.

Alex slowly started to mimic their moves with a huge grin on his face. While doing so, he accidentally hit Luke's arm, making the boy look over to him. He grabbed my cousin's shoulder, pointing to Julie, who looked a bit offended. Alex' smile quickly dropped, looking awkward. I gave him a quick thumbs up, making his lips twitch up once more.